Free bikes, Earth Day, and more

Happy Earth Day, you bike riding hippies. Did you know today is also the birthday of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (pictured to the left with a bicycle)? He was an enthusiastic cyclist and photographer, combining both of these hobbies while traveling before beginning his second career as architect of the Red Terror.

Officially, 150,000 people at Ciclavia yesterday. Ted in LA says he’s guessing a quarter million. I saw a Tweet from Wolfpack Hustle claiming up to a million. Ciclavia organizers planned for 100,000.

We have enough bike commuters in California that cycling to work is not considered a revolutionary or heroic activity, though we might be seen as slightly quirky. There are big segments of the USA, though, where bike commuters are newsworthy. Consider Dale, who celebrates Earth Day by riding his bike to work in Hazleton, PA. The headline of the story is much better than most — “It Just Feels Like Freedom.” The journalist includes the obligatory danger slant and highlight the extreme effort required to ride a bike (and I’m being sarcastic here), but otherwise it’s a decent article highlighting the positive fun of a simple bike ride. Kudos to Dale for making a difference in his town.